the shepherd and his flock
by fraghammer
Summary: adrian shepherd returns to fight the combine, spearhead the british resistance, and herd his flock. this is my first work so any comments will be appreciated, especially constructive critisicm. rated T for profanity/violence other parts upcoming
1. Chapter 1

The figure walked through the blackness, stepping out of a door of white light, he halted, and a grin formed on his face. He looked to his left, those aliens had actually gathered the nerve to face him, well, one of them had. He turned to his right, another alien, and then more appeared, chanting in a semicircle around him. As he saw two more aliens appear to rescue his employee, he straightened his tie.

"We'll see…about that!"

Time probably had no meaning here, so he had no idea how long he had been here. Corporal Adrian shepherd had been here for what felt like a lifetime, waiting, his demons driving him further past the line he thought he didn't have. He had long since taken refuge in madness, for he found peace in it. His mind could keep itself above boredom and misery. Even so, he longed for freedom a wish that was granted all too soon. His mind patrolling the boundaries of human thought as usual, he was torn from his meditation by a loud voice, echoing in the void of the osprey. "We'll see…about that!" the voice witch spoke these words was that of the man who had put him in this blackness. As soon as these words sounded, the door to the pilot's cabin of the osprey melted and flowed into itself, leaving a glowing green mist in the doorway. Hesitantly, Adrian staggered over to the emerald mist…

And stepped in.

The world solidified around him, every muscle and bone stung. Adrian knew he could not stay on his back for long, pulling himself up to his feet, his vision cleared. A city, a very beat up city. He was sitting in an alley, the stinging had now subsided, but a strange itch was creeping its way up his left leg. He looked at his legs; they were drifting in and out of his vision, as if both inside and outside reality at once. Then the itch engulfed him, and he was pulled away from the alley. He found himself standing in a cave, glowing larvae covered the walls and a large beetle like creature jumped at him. He was pulled away before it connected though, and found himself reaffirmed in an odd building. There were video screens all over the walls, an antique chair and table stood on a slight elevation in the room. An old man stood behind the chair, talking to an alien organism through one of the video panels. "There he went again! It freeman I tell you!" he turned around and saw Adrian "here goes another one!" he yelled at the video screen, before Adrian was pulled back again.

With a jolt shepherd bolted upright, he had now been phasing in and out of various locations now, but he had seemingly reaffirmed himself in the alley. He groaned, after several seconds stumbling around, he vomited all over the wall. All he could find energy for at the moment was to look up. The skyline was truly shocking. A colossal tower stood a few miles from where he stood, and small robotic constructs flew about the sky. Adrian staggered out of the alley and began to take a mental note of the area, it was a plaza, and a statue stood in the centre. He recognized it at once, despite the damage done to it. he was in Trafalgar square. That meant he was in London. The only major difference to the city since he had been here as part of his training, was that the architecture was all of alien design, save a few key buildings. the only words which flashed through his mind as he saw this, were

"what the bloody hell?"


	2. Chapter 2

Adrian shepherd felt like falling over again, but the general feel of the place told him that in this city, he would receive no help. Asides from the towering construct in the centre of the city, areas were walled off, and guards patrolled the square. If nelson had though of this happening to Trafalgar square he would throw up, shepherd thought. The guards wore gas masks of some kind, and black uniforms. All of them carried guns or batons. After staggering around, Adrian found a bench. He almost fell on it; all the disappearing had depleted his energy. He was helpless as two of the guards ran towards him and dragged him away.

Earlier…

Anthony sighed; it was the same every day. Beatings, execution, the combine police were far too brutal. Normally, no-one would be able to see through the combine camera systems, but the police had been lax here lately. This, combined with Harry's hacking abilities, had allowed the unit access to the combine network, in Britain, anyway. Then, something new, a man… in his uniform staggered out into Trafalgar square, the man did not don the unit's gas mask, but it was definitely his uniform. Even without zooming in he could tell who it was. Anthony picked up his radio, and yelled into it.

"All HECU units! The shepherd is amongst his flock! Repeat! The shepherd is amongst his flock!"

Usually, seeing a man dragged through the streets was a common sight. When that man wore military uniform, however, it could attract quite a crowd. Flocks of civilians followed the police, curious as to why someone had been rebellious enough to dress up as a human soldier of old. The police were obviously none too keen on attention, and activating a stunstick was well enough to scatter the crowd. Instead of taking the prisoner to the local checkpoint, the two police dragged shepherd behind an old barn. Shepherd gathered the strength to talk and pulled his head up. "Where…are you taking me?" he groaned, he was close to fainting, the shock should have passed by now. If what had happened in the alley was anything like what he though it was, he should have been immune to pain from it by now. One of the men looked around, checking for anyone who might see or hear anything. Satisfied that there were no witnesses, he turned back to Adrian. "Its ok corporal, you are in safe hands" the cops' voice was hard to hear, he was obviously using a radio. Corporal? Adrian thought, no-one outside of the military would know his rank or details, unless…

One of the two men thumped the door silently, taking care to leave varying space in between each hit. "Password?" a voice questioned from the other side of the door, Adrian could not be certain, but he felt sure that he heard a gun cocking on the other side. The man looked around again; he was clearly taking no chances with security. "Xen" he whispered, still looking for anyone who might overhear him. "Ok, open the door" the voice grunted approvingly. The men pulled shepherd in and slammed the door shut as quick as they could manage. One of them removed his helmet. "Target retrieved" he announced, before turning to shepherd "welcome back sir" he smiled. Every face in the room turned to face Adrian, three of them he recognized. One of them was his drill instructor Dwight T Barnes, who nodded a greeting to Adrian. And the other two shocked him beyond measure. They were alien's he had faced in black mesa. One of them peered towards him with a red eye; its greenish-brown skin seemed slimier than when he had faced its kind back in black mesa. He knew full well of the damage it could do, despite its lack of a weapon. The other one shocked shepherd even more. It was similar in build to the red-eyed alien. But it was grey skinned, and its eye was roughly orange in colour. The other noticeable difference was that it carried a weapon. A blue beetle crawled around its back; shepherd had seen these before at black mesa, handling one of the beetles himself. They were powerful weapons, and they generated their own ammunition. Even if one of these grey aliens did not have a beetle with it, it would still be an able combatant. The red eyed alien waved a greeting to shepherd, "greetings shepherd. You have returned at last…as was" it began; Adrian cut it off mid sentence. "Shut it! I will not fall to this trick!" he yelled, black mesa burning back into his mind. "I understand the shepherds' feelings. In black mesa, many of your kind were felled by mine…" shepherd cut it off again, this time by kicking it in where he assumed its stomach was. The memory of that cursed place returned his strength. A few of the marines reacted, but not many. The grey alien, however, snapped its arms into firing position. The beetle crawled into the creatures cradled arms. "Leave him alone! you didn't exactly spare us at black mesa" it shouted, it had a point, shepherd was anything but merciful to its kind. But why would it speak English now, why negotiate with humans after the horrors of black mesa instead of during. Adrian sighed, "I'm sorry, but why now?" after a few seconds pause, the alien looked around with its one eye. "Err… I'm sorry, what?" it said, confused. Adrian responded "why do you speak my language now, why do you try to calm the situation instead of frying it with a lightning throwing beetle…thing?" he was calmer now, and helped the green alien back to its feet. "we just didn't think back then…and he is not a beetle, he's more of a roach" it shrugged, the green alien stepped in, "the shepherd has been away for many years, and he will need information on the years stolen from him." It explained, recovering quickly from Adrian's attack. Stolen? Years? Adrian thought, no one but he and the man in the suit would know of his imprisonment. Perhaps these aliens were clairvoyant; they certainly were capable of performing glowing lights. After pondering the situation, Adrian asked for a full briefing on what had happened during his absence.

After several hours of talk, Adrian understood most of the key events he had missed. After black mesa, xen aliens had randomly begun teleporting out of nowhere, and humanity retreated to the cities. After several year of safety living in the urban areas, another race now known as the "combine" had appeared out of thin air in all the major cities and declared war on man. After seven hours, humanity was under combine control. They could no longer breed due to suppression technology, and the entire population was living in fear. Yet brave individuals resisted, and combined with the now free Vortigaunt's, as the green aliens were known, an effective resistance was hampering the combine where they could. The grey aliens were known as race X, but were only known of by the Vortigaunt's and certain parts of the resistance. It comforted shepherd to know that, despite the odds, a few of his comrades had survived. He was told by Barnes that in Britain and America the marines numbered at approximately three thousand troops. Adrian smiled, if these marines were veterans of black mesa like he was, the combine were at a disadvantage. These men had fought aliens before. Race X numbered only a few thousand troops, but thousands of civilians underground. According to the race X trooper, who was known to his kind as "Xar", the X had a unique allergy to Xen teleports; it caused them to revert to a primal and animalistic state. Millions of them were pulled into black mesa by the resonance cascade. Their basic instincts told them to build up biomass reserves, study the local creatures and find a way home. Their instinct also told them to flee from the nuke before it destroyed the complex. This was why so many of them survived the detonation. After black mesa, the effects of xen teleportation wore off and they regained sentience. One other major event had occurred during Adrian's absence: the scientist he had witnessed jumping into xen in black mesa, Gordon freeman, had led the resistance in Eastern Europe and destroyed two combine strongholds. The citadel of city 17 and nova prospekt, somewhere shepherd somehow knew not to ask about. The marines knew that it fell to them to rally the British resistance and do all the damage they could to the combine in Britain. With so many marines, trained resistance soldiers, Vortigaunt's and X, how could they possibly fail if they used guerrilla tactics? Xar told shepherd that he had not seen the best bit yet, and he (it appeared to be male) lead shepherd into a repair pit area of the marines stronghold. He punched a code into a rusty key panel and a hidden steel door opened. Xar ushered Adrian inside, in the garage area was a large vehicle covered by a large sheet in the absence of tarpaulin. Xar tore the sheet off the vehicle ceremonially. "Ta-dah!" he smiled. Adrian stood there, grinning.

"You've got a tank. You've got a bloody tank"


	3. Chapter 3

NOTES: I have changed the dialogue style to the type afalstien suggested.

I do not own Adrian shepherd, race X, black mesa, HECU, the combine, or the half life series (and regrettably, I do not own an M1 Abrams….)

But I do own Xar and the strange alloy….

Adrian stood there, amazed beyond words. If the combine were anywhere near as powerful as he had been told, it was a miracle that so many HECU marines had kept themselves hidden, marines in possession of a tank, however, was an even more miraculous reality.

Still smiling, Xar dropped the sheet and leaned two of his arms on the tank.

"Well, what do you think? Pretty neat for mechanical stuff" Xar nodded to the cannon

Adrian pulled himself together, and observed the vehicle in more detail.

"M1 Abrams, one of the main battle tank types of the former USA, how does it compare to combine tech?" He was familiar with the design, the opportunity had not arrived to drive one back at black mesa, but he knew how to drive one.

Xar leaned back against one of the railings in the workshop, and took on a more serious look.

"In a mass scale assault, or open war… it sucks basically. But the remedy to this problem is strewn throughout human history. The Romans invading Scotland, the gulf war, the French resistance in world war two, what do they have in common shepherd?" Xar had obviously taken an interest in humanity and its culture of old.

Shepherd pondered the question for a few moments, and then it hit him.

"Guerrilla warfare! The Nazis, the Americans, the Romans. They all smashed resistance in all out confrontations, and won. Only to be taken apart by surprise attacks and gradual attrition of their supplies, troops and strongholds. So the war we fight is a war fought in hiding…damn"

Shepherd hated the hidden war.

"Well, the tank has proved to work well in surprise assaults. Especially when used with the rest of the armour." Xar grinned, anticipating shepherds response.

"The rest?"

Xar let out a loud growl like sound, and on cue, another door opened.

"Come, shepherd" Xar motioned towards the passage, now struggling to avoid laughing. Something big lay through that door.

Shepherd noticed the grin and leapt through the entrance. Xar followed, sniggering slightly.

What was housed through the doors defied Adrian's expectations completely. He had expected a few more Abrams; instead, about forty odd vehicles were neatly sat in ranks, covered in sheets like the Abrams. They sat there, as if sleeping. None of them were made of alloys Adrian recognized, but they all felt human.

"These aren't any of the old tanks. Salvaged gear? I'll guess" Adrian raised an eyebrow; he didn't know whether to be overjoyed or confused. They all exuded an odd aura, as if pushing Adrian away from them.

"Yes, salvaged and reverse engineered combine stuff mostly, but there is one other thing. You feel that? Those little 'stay the hell away from us' feelings? That's the weapons. They are neither combine nor human" Xar paused at for a few seconds, and then added "or X"

"Then who made them?" Adrian began backing away from the vehicles, giving in to the urge to remove himself from their presence.

"You will remember the black ops from black mesa. Some of their vehicles were partially composed of a strange metal. A few of your colleagues salvaged it in their escape from the complex. We still do not know its origins." Xar sighed at the end of the sentence; he was clearly frustrated by the failure to identify the alloy.

"These are a new generation of tanks. They are new, but not as effective as the Abrams. It leads the armour division." Xar continued, returning to the point. "But there is one other thing to the armour division. Xar coughed as shepherd backed through a door different to the one he had entered in through.

As he entered the room, he heard a noise he had not heard since black mesa. A noise that had haunted him in the sewers as he was stalked by one of the most deadly X subspecies he had witnessed in the complex. He slowly turned to face the squealing sound.

And came face to face with a voltigore.


	4. Chapter 4

Xar broke out laughing when he saw Adrian's reaction to the voltigore. Adrian leapt back towards the door, which was now blocked by Xars massive form.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME THE HELL OUT!!" Adrian was genuinely scared for the first time he could remember since childhood, he had not feared the voltigores in black mesa, but he had a gun then. Now he was unarmed, and unable to defend himself. Xar burst into hysterics at Adrian's attempt to escape, the thumping steps of the voltigore drew closer, Adrian had enough time to turn around before it made its move.

He braced himself; he knew full well the potential of the creature in combat. It was effective at both ranged and melee combat. His PCV had read as zero power when he checked it earlier. So he would die quickly at least…

It came as a surprise to Adrian, that instead of tearing into him, the creature sniffed him, and stomped off to the part of the room it had approached him from. Xar pulled himself together.

"And they call you fearless? Even the bloody recruits can handle being put in the pens with one of those guys! Hell, Anderson spent the night in there once!" Xar broke back into laughter.

"well the last time I saw one was when they were destroying entire platoons of black ops, can you blame me for being a little bit scared of something that tore through the most highly trained military personnel the earth had to offer with ease?" Adrian finally regained his normal character. He had stopped yelling at least.

"I suppose not… but it was pretty funny. I mean, you should have seen your face!" Xar was no longer in hysterics, but he wasn't exactly calm. He regained himself. "Anyway, they are an agricultural animal of sorts with my race. But they have military applications. So really the voltigores are only dangerous if we tell them to be. They also make up a good part of the armour" Xar was finally calm and was in no danger of hysterics.

"Hmm, I can see how that works." Adrian had a clear image in his head of a voltigore overturning a tank easily, before tearing the underside apart. Well, having them on his side was an improvement.

Xar nodded, and then began to walk towards the door to the workshop. "Now, let's get you back to having a gas mask, you will need the built in HUD. And besides, the mask suited you." He called Adrian back to him.

"Hold on, how do you even know if the mask suits me?" Adrian suddenly became aware of a startling possibility.

"Err… yes…about that…." Xar scratched the back of his neck, looking less confident than he had a few seconds ago. "I remembered one thing from black mesa…you. You wounded me, you might not remember but it happened. I was one of the first X to be brought back to my senses. Pain brought me back. The big bruise mark on my stomach, see?" Xar pointed to a black spot on his chest, the mark looked a lot like the receiving end of a wrench.

Adrian was shocked, he had wounded this X and now he talked to Xar as if nothing had happened.

"And you aren't angry about that?" Adrian hesitated to ask.

"Hell no! Shit happens" Xar laughed, even though it must have been a pretty nasty wound to bring him back from the feral stage.

"Anyway, the gas mask." Xar reminded Adrian, changing subject hastily.

Back up at marine headquarters, there was a full recharge ready for Adrian's PCV and a gas mask. Adrian noticed one new addition to the uniform of the HECU was that all of the troops had a sheep painted on their sleeves. The significance immediately hit Adrian. They meant for him to lead them.

A shepherd to herd his flock.

Several hours after the recharge of his PCV, Adrian had explored the base and armed himself. He did not need a weapon yet, but he felt calmer carrying one. He brought the gun with him wherever he went in the base, it still did not save him in the mess hall.

Halfway through what passed for dinner (barnacle fillets, leeches and potato) Adrian was finally part of the family again, most of the old troops were there. And he felt as if, for the first time in years, he had a purpose. He almost hit the table when the entire room froze except him and a man standing three tables away.

"Corporal shepherd, my apologies for the inconvenience, its time to come home." The man hissed. He had not changed since he had locked Adrian into the void.

"This is my home. Fuck off." Adrian replied sternly. He was not going back, not now.

"I do apologize again corporal, but my employers stated very clearly you are not to be released without their express orders." The man spoke again, his voice was really getting on Adrian's nerves.

"I already said, fuck off. And besides, why did you release me then?" Adrian kept emotion out of his voice; he would beat this bastard at his own game.

"One or two rival… industries had no idea how to handle political matters and you were released by a slight loophole in company policy, now come home shepherd." The man hissed, emotion entering his voice, anger.

One of the doors to the mess hall broke open. Three Vortigaunt's, two race X troops, one of them Xar, and a smaller than average voltigore burst in to the hall. The two race X troops were wheezing and out of breath.

"What part of" Xar stopped to breathe before continuing "fuck off don't you understand?" he finished, his shock roach crawling into firing position.

"Always with the damn aliens. I'll be back for you, shepherd" the man faded away silently. As if he was never there. The hall burst into life again. The Vortigaunt's and the X were no longer there.


	5. Chapter 5

All was silent; it was the same every time. Another combine patrol, another gunship. Sam wished he could put the mounted weapon in the lookout post to good use, but that would mean giving up hiding, and giving up hiding, meant annihilation. The rebels were not ready to stand up to a frontal assault yet. They needed to deal the first blow, catch the combine off guard… so why didn't they? The marines could easily take the city and most of the country if they kept surprise on their side. Sam snapped back to reality. The rebellion needed to wait for an opportunity. With the return of shepherd, things might get back on track. Sam still longed for a chance to fight though; he had been going out to receive rations long enough. The damn uprising was more of a country club now.

"You alright Sam?" Thomas climbed into the tower through the access ladder. Wearing the sheep logo on his shoulder with more pride than usual.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just miss fighting, you know? I miss having an ar2 instead of binoculars." Sam sighed, at least it was safer here, and the Vortigaunt's could cook better than a burning petrol canister.

Thomas nodded "I know, but shepherds back. You never know, we might start fighting the combine for real soon." He missed fighting as much as Sam.

Movement in the rubble near the tower drew Sam's attention. Grey armour clad figures sneaking towards the base. Behind them, three legs tore through the ruins.

"Say, is that a strider?"

Inside the base…

Adrian was sat inside the recreation area of the base, it was about as homely as a refugee/military base could get. A marine was sat next to him.

"Shepherd? Out of interest, how did you keep hidden for so long?" the soldier asked Adrian.

"I, don't know if I was hiding to be honest." Adrian replied slowly, unsure of himself after the canteen.

"Ok then" the marine raised an eyebrow; he looked new, a rebel recruit probably.

"Never mind me; I haven't had time to think lately." Adrian sighed, that mans voice still echoed in his mind.

"I'll be back for you, shepherd"

Suddenly, a loud bang reverberated around the base, and two rebels ran into the room

"Uhh, we… we're under attack." One of the two rebels looked around, slightly embarrassed.

Every marine in the room snapped a gun out of a hiding place. The rebels in the room scrambled around and produced weapons out of badly concealed places, one of them trying to pull a revolver out of his sock. The marines shuddered visibly, and tore out the room cleanly, most of the rebels piled in after them.

Outside was utter chaos, on the combine side at least. The marines had lined up along the top of one of the bases walls, and were pouring hell into the combine soldiers. The strider that had accompanied the combine was little more than a mass of mangled legs and rubble. As for the soldiers, most of the combine were spread over the ground, crows already picking their prizes. When Adrian reached the wall, the last combine was torn to pieces by every gun lined up on the wall. The marines remained silent, the rebels cheered.

And then wave two appeared.

"Aw piss. COMBINE ELITE!" one of the rebels roared, Adrian readied his gun, he had heard of the elites. Harder than normal combine by far. They looked tougher. He had heard they occasionally led squads or made up small squads of their own, but these were entire platoons of elites. Hundreds lined up neatly in organized ranks. No one dared fire a shot; even the marines were stiff and unsure of victory.

Adrian remembered the grenade launcher on his weapon.

One of the groups of elites exploded from a box formation into tiny bits of flesh and armour flying in all directions, the marines and rebels returned to their senses.

The entire combine line was taken apart by gunfire.

Adrian reloaded his gun after the volley was over, Smiling beneath the mask.

"You see! Nothing to worry about. Tons of specialist infantry. Great party trick, but ineffective, think defensively people, we are not storming a bunker full of them." Adrian encouraged the troops. After waiting for another wave of combine, all that came was a gunship, which was torn apart by heavy calibre bullets from machine guns mounted on the roof. Everyone went back inside after that. Barnes groaned as he followed Adrian back in.

"There goes our cover."


	6. Chapter 6

The base was silent, all the marines and rebels awaiting the decision of the leadership. The only room with any sound at all was the command centre. Despite the fact that his rank did not affect anyone other than the marines in his squad, Adrian had been given a place in command. It did not take a genius to figure out why.

In the years he had been absent, the marines had grown fond of the idea that Adrian was some form of 'hero' simply because he had tried to escape black mesa, and after failing that, follow a drunken path of destruction throughout the facility.

When the last member of command arrived in the room, everybody fell silent and one of the marines stood up. General Marcus Spence, not a man Adrian remembered from black mesa, he was probably recruited afterwards.

"Gentlemen, we have before us, one of the largest risks to base security since Wolfe betrayed us. The combine have discovered our position and assaulted the base, although we repelled this attack, there will be more. We have a number of options open to us in this situation. Before I mention any of them, has anyone any ideas to suggest?"

There was a few seconds chatter, and then a few marines and rebels stood up.

Spence pointed at one of the younger marines, "you there, suggestion?"

The marine saluted. "Sir, we repelled the attack, as you said. We can repel more, we took minimal casualties from the attack and depleted very little materiel. I suggest we entrench ourselves further and continue in defence"

The general appeared thoughtful for a second, and then whispered to the rest of the high command detail. After a brief conversation, he turned back to face the marine.

"Marine, the combine sent a high strength attack force this time; they intended to remove us as fast as they could. Now that they have lost the element of surprise, they will undoubtedly bring stronger attacks."

A rebel stuck her hand up, and Spence turned to face her.

"Yes?"

"Sir, we could rotate to one of the other bases in the city" the rebel suggested.

"Such a large movement of supplies and personnel would alert the combine too easily, any other suggestions?"

No other people stood up for a few seconds, then a man Adrian recognized from black mesa, a member of his old squad, Jackson. He was a combat engineer although his main purpose on the field had been demolition.

"Yes marine?" the general sighed.

"Sir, the combine will be organising another attack, and will have lost a significant amount of soldiers and materiel in the assault. I suggest that while they are regrouping, we attack them; we have a network of outposts throughout the city and we can turn the entire area on the combine as soon as we want to."

The general stood there, looking at Jackson. Then he spoke.

"Marine, don't you think we thought of that? That was the plan, unless anyone had a better suggestion. If we launch an assault, we may even get a shot at Wolfe." The commander paused, "all in favour?" almost every hand in the room shot up. "All against?" nobody raised a hand.

It was settled, the marines were returning to the battlefield.

On the way out of the room, Adrian tracked down Jackson, if at least one person from his old unit survived, he had a family.

He waved at Jackson, and approached him, Adrian expected him to shake hands or something, instead Jackson hugged him.

"Adrian! I though it was just me man! I mean I knew you were in the base but, I mean look! You haven't changed since black mesa and all"

Adrian noticed that Jackson had changed since black mesa, he still had the bristle covered face he did all those years ago, but he was older, and his face showed it, his hair was turning grey, he looked tired, and his movements were slower. If Adrian remembered anything of him though, he fought well under any conditions.

"Missed you too man" Adrian smiled.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After a while of gibbering on about 'the good old days', Jackson leaned stopped abruptly.

"I've just realised, you've been away since black mesa. You won't know who Wolfe is."

"I was curious" Adrian responded

"Absolute asshole I'm afraid, you will have been told about doctor Breen, who betrayed humanity to the combine." Jackson started, shuddered, and continued.

"Well, Wolfe was a traitor too; he was a marine, a veteran of black mesa. You won't know him, he was a sergeant. He had an admirable career really. He worked hard to ensure the security of our old base and the resistance in London; did a good job too. But something went wrong, he went nuts, he betrayed us to the combine for power. He exchanged the title of: Sergeant Wolfe for: Prime Minister Wolfe."

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"You mean that he rules Britain?"

Jackson sighed.

"And a small bit of Europe and the USA. Although he still responds to Breen. He only has the vision of power; Breen is still fully in control.

Adrian shook his head, a man betraying humanity was bad enough, but a marine betraying his brothers was a terrible thought.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - -- - - -- - - - - - -

At midnight, a volunteer from the marines was snuck into Trafalgar square and hidden in a hiding place (a tiny but unused police station inside a pillar near the road) and was to wait till next morning to give a signal.

That volunteer was Corporal Adrian shepherd.

The next morning, the police were suspicious of the large amount of people passing through the square. Many civilians were harassed for information out of paranoia.

As big Ben struck twelve, the rebellion began.


	7. Chapter 7

Adrian had both fought in and commanded surprise assaults several times throughout his career.

Even so, the results of this one were quite satisfying.

With the sound of big Ben. Adrian burst out the police station. Jackson had given him a custom grenade designed for sound and visibility. That would alert the resistance.

Adrian tossed the grenade at the nearest group of police visible.

The detonation was louder than anything he had ever heard.

Instead of exploding, the grenade played what seemed like 'god save the queen' at phenomenal volume levels. The combine nearest the grenade shrieked under the helmets, one of them staggered into a wall, another fell to the ground out of shock, the others pulled out their weapons, firing blindly into the air.

Almost all of the civilians tore weapons from hiding positions, many of them revealed lambda symbols on their clothes.

As one, the rebels, oppressed for years, cheered, thousands of voices roaring as one. The city shook even over the sound of the grenade.

In the square alone, a hundred weapons fired, combine policemen were torn to pieces by wild gunfire.

The combine rallied, police poured into the square, fighting a lost battle. Rebels continued firing, regardless of any losses the combine inflicted.

Adrian joined in for a bit, killing at least ten combine.

Then he just gave up, and left the rebels to it for a while.

The combine radio was chaos, Adrian patched in through the marines general hacked frequency channel.

"OUTBREAK OUTBREAK OUTBREAK"

"Break up, rally back at the local nexus, I repeat, rally at local nexus."

"THIS is Wolfe speaking to all combine units in city twelve. Stay your positions, deserters will be shot. Overwatch forces are en route to provide reinforcements."

For the first time, Adrian heard the voice of the traitor marine, he could tell from the mans voice that he was at least slightly mentally unhinged.

Adrian was distracted from the radio by the rebels, the combine forces in the square had been disposed of, and a makeshift camp was being set up with supplies from nearby buildings. A few rebels were mounting the union jack in a nearby pile of rubble. The grenade still played the British anthem, albeit quieter.

Things were going well.

Then the combine truly retaliated.


	8. Chapter 8

The rebels turned to the citadel. Hundreds of loud thumping noises were moving closer to the square, everybody ran to defence positions, hastily constructed from rubble.

The thumping paused; there was a long, eerie silence.

A loud charging sound. Then the buildings at the north end of the square exploded into rubble.

Eight striders stood amongst the ruins.

There was another pause, and then the rebels opened fire.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of smg's, pulse weapons, pistols and assorted other weapons tore apart the air with ammunition.

The massive storm of lead hit the striders, their armour practically glowing with sparks.

They shook it off like it wasn't even there.

Then they returned the gesture.

The rebels ran for cover, many of them were torn into bloody mist before they even started running. A few courageous souls stood their ground, still firing in vain.

Adrian hid in the police station, activated his radio.

"This is shepherd, anyone receiving me?"

There was a sickly wait and a large burst of static.

"Roger shepherd, this is HQ, status?"

Adrian peered around the station.

"Seven, no… eight striders are occupying Trafalgar square north. Roughly… sixty five percent casualties on our side. Request immediate armour support."

"Negative shepherd, armours caught up near Buckingham palace. Heavy weapon support en route"

It wasn't a tank, but a rocket launcher would do.

He should have known, Jackson would go one better.

The striders stood still, randomly incinerating areas with their cannons. The few rebels left in the square huddled in alleys and behind columns.

The striders began to advance.

Then they turned to face the west side.

"HEY ASSHOLES!"

Jackson appeared on the western rooftops.

Hell if Adrian knew what he was carrying. It looked like three pulse rifles stuck together. Adrian knew Jackson took risks, but this?

Jackson had deployed the thing on a pintle mount, and was now shouting more meaningless words at the strider's, which had already opened up on his location.

Then he tried out his new toy.

In unison, three shock orbs fired out of the contraption. Followed by another volley. Two of the strider's fell apart, holes singed in their armour. Another round and another strider was destroyed. The remaining five advanced over to the rooftops.

One of the striders passed over a manhole, which promptly flew open and a rebel fired a rocket out towards the underside of the strider.

Four more to go.

Jackson fired another three orbs.

Three more to go.

The surviving rebels ran out of their makeshift cover and fired a few grenades out of their smg's.

One more to go.

The last strider reached Jackson's position. He was reloading the device.

The strider charged its cannon, the tracer beam beginning to form.

The strider fell apart in a fiery explosion.

The Abrams trundled into the square.

"Sorry we're late"


	9. Chapter 9

"This is shepherd, do you copy armour, over" Adrian radioed the tank.

"Copy shepherd, ready for orders. Over" the tank commanders voice crackled through the static.

"I was told armour was unavailable, caught up someplace else. Over"

"Not anymore, my company has three independents (apparently that's what they called the strange tanks), eight voltigores and some X handlers, and the Abrams, over" the static calmed a little.

"Do you have orders yet?" Adrian replied

"Negative, awaiting your command"

Jackson broke into the channel.

"Adrian, I'm making my way down to ground level with my men, recommend you move northwards, from what I see up here, you'll have to blow up a few checkpoints to reach the local Overwatch nexus. Not many striders in this district. I see… four choppers moving around."

Adrian looked up, there were indeed four combine helicopters moving in the air, a few rebels in Jackson's squad fired rockets into the air.

Three choppers.

"Out of interest, what was that back there?" Adrian radioed Jackson, still puzzled by the display of bravado.

"You have no idea how many weapons I have customized over the years; this is a good opportunity to test them."

Adrian wondered what else Jackson had cooked up when in hiding.

He spoke to the tank commander again.

"We're heading north towards the nexus; request that you take point, Jackson's moving across the street parallel to ours."

"Copy shepherd, rolling forward"

After fifteen minutes without opposition while on the move, the company reached a checkpoint. It was full of combine soldiers and police, Adrian thought he spotted an elite in there.

The combine really didn't want them reaching the nexus.

Hundreds of sparks appeared on the Abrams, causing no lasting damage

The Abrams cannon fired, rubble and combine showered the area.

The advance continued.

The nexus was well defended, tons of police and Overwatch were patrolling the area, and a suppressor device was mounted on the roof of the place.

Adrian observed this, and spoke into the radio.

"They have an artillery piece mounted on the roof, recommend we sneak in to avoid the meat grinder, and keep the armour out of this."

There was a long burst of static.

Jackson responded, he was now stationed up on a roof near Adrian's position.

"Or, we could bomb the shit out of them." he suggested.

His men had set up mortars and other long range explosives on the roof.

Adrian grinned beneath the gas mask.

"Affirmative"

"All right men, load clusterfucks" Jackson saluted from the roof.

Guy Fawkes Night just came early.


	10. Chapter 10

High above the fighting, above the war and above the death. An old soldier silently sighed to himself. Observing a rebellion in an office, miles above the ground, with no glory or fighting to be had.

This was no way for a soldier to live.

This man was Prime Minister Harold Wolfe.

In his life in the citadel, he often had time to think, and to wonder.

Right now, he was wondering why the Overwatch nexus had turned into a giant black mess.

He leaned over to the intercom.

"Report on the nexus?"

A voice obscured by static spoke from the radio.

"Some sort of dark energy device malfunction, miniature scale meltdown, possible failure of the reactors."

Wolfe snarled.

"The rebels?"

The radio cleared, and the static-free voice answered.

"Possibly, wait… they have artillery on top of some buildings near the nexus. Scans are unusual, hold on…sir! The rebels are deploying dark energy based technology, your command?"

Although no one would hear him, Adrian cheered. Never since the days before black mesa had he seen such magnificent fireworks. Oily black flowers blossomed across the combine nexus, the buildings reactors failed and the power supply became another part of the field of black growing over the area.

Adrian's radio crackled

"Well? What' you think?" Jackson yelled, the explosions were causing havoc on the radio system.

"What! In gods name was that?" Adrian roared back, his eyes still glued to the black fire in front of him.

The radio static cleared. "Never mind, ill tell you later."

The fires and explosions ceased and Adrian lowered himself into the crater. The crater was not very deep around the edges; the centre reached at least ten metres down.

"What's our next move, command?" Adrian returned to the radio.

"Shepherd? This is HQ, we have an update, there is a rebel chopper approaching from the northeast, its taking a stealth route towards our position."

Adrian coughed. a helicopter? A tank was one thing but a chopper?

"Can you confirm the passengers?"

"Negative shepherd, they say that they only need to refuel." HQ responded.

Adrian's weapon had been outfitted with a scope; it had an 8X zoom, more or less enough to make out the details of the chopper.

It was a Chinese design, or so Adrian thought, it had obviously been kept in well enough condition to fly. He could see into the pilot's compartment.

The one driving it was a young woman, and the other, Adrian could not make out the facial details, but there was something he recognized.

A suit, an orange, powered suit. The HEV protective system. Adrian knew at once who this man was.

"Gordon Freeman…"

AUTHORS NOTES: anyone who is reading this. DON'T STOP BECAUSE I'VE PUT FREEMAN IN IT!!

I will keep to the 'no talking' character and he won't be around for long, anyway.


	11. Chapter 11

Freeman, Gordon Freeman. Of all the rebels in the entire world to turn up in London, it would be freeman.

Adrian moved to another part of the crater, he checked the chopper again, he could see freeman's face.

The same man, the same beard the same glasses. He looked the same age as he did during black mesa.

Adrian prayed he would not have to face up to him during the refuelling process, Adrian had been one of the last people to see freeman in black mesa, and Adrian's unit had killed untold amounts of innocent personnel that day.

Adrian would not at all mind meeting the other occupant of the chopper though…

He snapped back to the point, there WAS a war going on, and the combine were beginning to inspect the area.

"Easy," he whispered under the helmet "just avoid them"

"What was that?" Jackson broke in; the receiving was not good on the radio, which Adrian realized he had not switched off.

"Nothing" Adrian sighed back.

Jackson obviously couldn't make out what the radio was saying either.

"NUT 'EM? What are you on about?"

Adrian hit the radio in his helmet a few times.

"Look! Just pack the artillery up and move back to the armour" Adrian shouted

"WHATS THAT ABOUT MY MOTHER?"

Adrian was losing the plot because of the static. The resistance could get tanks but no good radio service?

"PACK THE FUCKING ARTILLERY UP AND MOVE BACK TO THE TANKS!" Adrian roared into the radio.

Then he realized that the shouting had attracted the combine.

A few police were positioned around him, three Overwatch soldiers were behind them and one elite was commanding them.

"Err…" Adrian lowered his weapon. "Yeah…I'm having a few problems here, could you…maybe come back later"

The combine all raised their weapons and the elite fired three shots at Adrian's chest. His PCV absorbed the impact but the elite did not fire again.

Perhaps it had something to do with the crowbar stuck in its head.

The group of combine turned to anarchy, two of the police fired randomly into the ruins, the other police trained their guns on movements in the rubble, the Overwatch threw grenades into the ruined buildings, and showers of rubble covered their enemy's approach nicely.

Adrian lifted his SMG and felled three policemen, through the dust and rubble, he saw an orange clad figure sprinting towards the combine, there was a sickly sound as the figure pulled the crowbar from the elite's skull, he then jabbed the sharper end through a policeman.

The combine took careful aim at the assailant; Adrian saw one of them fire an SMG grenade. Instead of an explosion, there was an odd sound and the grenade was seen hovering in the air, centimetres away from a glowing orange tool.

There was a loud electric CRACK and the grenade exploded in the centre of the Overwatch soldier's formation.

The final metro cop, the man dispatched by throwing his crowbar, picking it up with the orange gun, and firing it through the unfortunate combine's heart.

Gordon freeman stood triumphant.

Adrian formulated a way to explain things to him. Adrian had, after all, been part of the purge of black mesa.

"Err, hello?" Adrian began. Freeman ran over to the dead metro cop, and started to pull the crowbar free.

"You won't remember me, but I feel I should apologise, I am one of the marines who were sent into black mesa, look, I didn't really kill any innocents, but I'm really sorry." Adrian really had no idea of what to say in this situation.

Freeman remained silent.

"Look, I said I'm sorry, just, say something, please?" Adrian sighed

Freeman was unresponsive as ever.

"Oh come on, don't play silent with me. I said I'm sorry, what do I have to do?"

Freeman was, again, silent. Then he sprinted into the ruins.

"Hey! WAIT! WE DON'T KNOW WHATS IN THERE!"

Freeman ignored Adrian and continued around a corner, the marines had caught up with Adrian by now.

There was a loud sniper rifle shot, and then a thud as an orange armoured body hit the ground.

"MEDIC!" a marine yelled, and then a man with a red cross on his shoulder ran to freeman.

The medic at once began to work on the wounds, a sniper round had gone through freeman's neck.

"Bastard should have worn the helmet"

The squad camped out near freeman's body, standing guard over the medic as he did his work.

A few marines with a stretcher arrived to carry freeman back to HQ. The local CO strode over to Adrian.

"We're moving freeman back to HQ, the combine have been pushed out of this sector, we are making a push towards the citadel." With that, the CO briskly walked into a building being used as a command post.

The medic, whose services were no longer required rejoined Adrian's unit.

"What condition is he in?" Adrian nodded to freeman, who was being mounted on the stretcher

"Even if he didn't talk before, he sure as hell ain't talking now." The medic replied with a grunt.

"Why was he even here, I thought the chopper was refuelling"

One of the marines looked to Adrian.

"The chopper was damaged and had to land closer to your position, the engineers are fixing it up. Apparently freeman thought it would be fun to join in while the chopper got the works"

Adrian shook his head.

"God knows how he survived black mesa, still. You heard the man; we're making our move and attacking the citadel. No idea of how we're going to take it down but…"

Jackson interrupted Adrian with an unusually loud cough, he stroked a mortar gently.

"Okay… we still don't know whether or not we are going to demolish it, command might want it captured." Adrian continued, before a rebel interrupted.

"Hey, didn't the combine, like, self destruct the citadel in city 17 when the rebels there won?"

"To be completely honest I hadn't been told about that yet, I only just got back remember?" Adrian shrugged.

One detail worried Adrian, and he had not seen his former captor for some time now. If that bastard interrupted at a crucial moment in the siege…

"Lets move" Adrian spoke calmly, the comm. Channel started to explain the details of the plan to the rebellion.

"Everyone listen up! The marines have clearly stated that they wish to capture the prime minister, and refuse to participate in the attack unless they are allowed to do so. Therefore, we are NOT going to blow that eyesore up, the citadel is staying where it is for now."

Quite obviously a rebel speaking.

"the tanks are going to blow a hole near the ground level, the citadel is, as you know, built in a bloody large hole in the ground. We have stolen some combine force field technology and we plan on making a bridge with it."

For Christ's sake. Here the rebels were, with an entire city. Trying to think up ideas as to how to cross a few metres gap, and this was their best idea?

"oh, and the marines are the only ones going in, general Spence requested that I read this message to a certain marine: Jackson, no explosives."

The message finished, Jackson hit a wall in frustration, sighed, and produced a magnum revolver from his holster, well, it may once have been a magnum revolver but it certainly was not now.

For one, it had four barrels and a clip for each. Jackson noticed Adrian staring at the weapon.

"Another product of my bored mind, it's essentially a magnum shotgun; it can fire up to four rounds at once with minimum spread. It also makes a nice loud bang when fired." He smiled.

"and this is the backup" he took a regular magnum out of his other holster, he prepared to load a fresh clip, but only pulled one bullet out of the chamber.

"It also serves as cig storage" he indicates that the bullet was, in fact, a cigarette.

"What if you need it in the middle of a fire fight?" Adrian raised an eyebrow (although no one would see it)

"I don't" Jackson smiled

The area around Adrian and Jackson's squads was teeming with life now, the rebels having set up an outpost there. Typical of a rebel outpost, tables with radios, small scrap shelters and fuel depots had been set up.

Additionally, the X appeared to have been fighting nearby the area, as they were beginning to swarm into the street. The voltigores began trampling deserted buildings to make room for construction; the shock troops were carrying scrap and makeshift building materials. The things known as "pit drones" were setting up shop with food and supplies. The manner the pit drones went about their business (or rather, the way they were preparing food and building shelters) reminded Adrian of some of earths older oriental cultures, whereas the shock troops were all behaving more like the western cultures in their behaviour.

The X must have different variants of the species, instead of being a union of different ones, as Adrian had thought during black mesa.

Adrian noticed Xar sitting on a piece of rubble; he clutched a small plant like piece of biomass. Adrian approached Xar, and sat down next to him. The biomass Xar was holding was reminiscent of a photograph; it had an image captured on it somehow. The image was of an X shock trooper and Xar, but the other X was different, more slender, the eye was a lighter shade of amber and there was less muscle on the X's body.

"Xar?" Adrian nodded hello.

"Hey Adrian." Xar responded quietly.

"You doing all right?"

Xar sighed.

"A little homesick"

Adrian glanced at the 'photo' again.

"Who's that?"

"My mate. She… she did not get pulled into black mesa with me; I had this image grown after our visit to Nualgar. All I remember is that we got drunk as hell that night"

"Nualgar?" Adrian guessed it was an X city, or hive, or whatever.

"Nice place, great scenery, the X there were always polite, not that any of that matters now…"

Adrian saw Xars' eye concentrate on the female X in the photo

"You never know, she might have ended up in lack mesa as well"

"Maybe, maybe…" Xar sighed

Adrian was not sure, but he thought he saw a tear gathering in Xars eye. But one thing Adrian was sure of: the X never meant to harm anyone; they only wanted to get back to wherever they had come from to begin with.

Knowing that, Adrian actually felt sorry for them.


	12. Chapter 12

The base of the citadel was dark if nothing else, a huge dark pit in the ground. Such an excavation would take years to dig by human means.

The rebels were busy fiddling around with some repainted combine gear, one of the strange vehicles that the rebels possessed stood ready; another was being salvaged by a group of mechanics.

Adrian strode up to the engineers and tapped the vehicles weapon.

"Hey, what is it these guns do exactly?"

One of the engineers smiled through his grimy face.

"God only knows, to be honest, we're only performing system checks, this beauty repairs itself."

Adrian stared at the tank.

"Say what?" he didn't remember the black ops vehicles regenerating.

"Yeah, it repairs its own armour, look"

the engineer shot a burst from his SMG at the armour, the bullets made small dents, there was a short wait, and then tiny specks of black began filling the dents and reforming into a perfect smooth surface.

"Any chance I'll see the weapons in action?" Adrian looked at the citadel

The engineer grinned and dove over to the other side of the tank. He came back with what looked like a SAW heavy machine gun, but the barrel was longer, there was no ammo clip visible, most features typical of an automatic weapon were gone, and the thing was much lighter looking.

"This thing is a smaller version, infantry mounted; I only ever made one of these"

The engineer offered it to Adrian, it was hard to resist grabbing the gun, but it was like the thing spoke to him.

"Don't pick me up, I'm not the gun you want, try an AK47 from the armoury, anything but me…"

Adrian ignored such thoughts and accepted the weapon quickly. The thing was lighter than most pistols, the gun felt to be feeling for the shape of his hand and making itself comfortable. The weapon also had a 5X scope.

"Go on, try it out" the engineer pointed at a large rock.

A loud siren rung, interrupting Adrian's attempt at testing the device.

"All marines prepare for assault."

The engineer pointed at the gun.

"Keep it, you'll need it in there!" then he ducked back down into the tank.

The marines had grouped around the bridge, Adrian saw twenty, maybe twenty two squads. Jackson was standing with his custom magnum near the front.

Dwight Barnes stood up front himself, donning PCV armour. Adrian could swear he saw a flash of dark blue up on the rocks.

"Marines, I have known many of you from before the black mesa incident, others I now know from after. But let me say, that despite everything, I have found something of myself in you. We stand now; ready to take our fallen brother, ready to deal the killing blow. As the marines in the pacific claimed victory over the Japanese, as the US marine corps stood victorious over al-Qaeda in the Persian Gulf…"

Jackson interrupted

"Hey, didn't we lose in Iraq?"

Barnes corrected himself

"As the marines fought bravely in the gulf war, we shall fight without fear, without mercy and without fault now!"

The US marines hadn't done that well in the gulf war; Barnes must be getting senile… Adrian thought

"Two squads are to advance down to the bottom of the citadel; you are to make a breach at the coordinates marked on each squads map. To do this you have been supplied with C4 explosive charges. I and the other squads will advance upwards and take Wolfe. Understood? No questions?"

No one raised their hands.

"Very well, marines!"

The entire army snapped to attention

"the flocks with me, so are j1 and h2, a3 and b4 are with the charges, the others, split up between the two groups and help as best you can. Advance!"

With that, the marines stampeded forward.

Adrian ran through the charging crowd, looking for his squad, then he remembered that he was, in fact, leading one.

Four marines were charging alongside him, one with a pulse rifle, another with an SMG, one with a shotgun and the other with a desert eagle and berretta pistol.

Adrian's squad had been dubbed 'the flock' by many marines and rebels, one or two of them had even taken to making sheep noises for communication.

Adrian really regretted his last name.

He marines charged across the force field bridge, they reached the breach in the citadel walls and poured into the place, setting up fall back markers as they went. The two major groups of marines went their separate ways, Adrian's squad moved with Barnes and Jackson accompanied them, at least forty marines ran alongside them.

After a minutes running, they encountered the first combine resistance in the citadel.

The combine had barricaded the position and set up heavy pulse rifles and turrets.

The combine hardly had time to fire, the turrets had barely turned on by the time the marines had trampled them into scrap.

The marines just ran at them, guns blazing, no tactics, they didn't need them with that many marines. Most of the combine ran, most of them just got trampled to death under the marine's feet. It was a human tsunami; the marines swept the place clean.

Finally though, the marines lost momentum and were forced to advance slower, giving to combine time to fire, this time the marines took cover, moved around a bit and actually used combat tactics.

Adrian got to test the rifle at last; he took careful aim at one of the combine manning a pulse turret and squeezed the trigger gently.

The results surprised even him, first a small pellet sized wound was inflicted on the combine soldier, then the wound turned black and began turning the armour and flesh around it black as well. The combine let go of the turret and ran into a wall, screaming over the radio, the entire soldier was blackened, and then it was reduced to a pile of dust.

The fate of their comrade gave to other combine pause, long enough for Adrian to squeeze off a round at their cover, a similar effect appeared on the barricades, and some of the ash was blown onto combine troops, who suffered the fate of their fellow soldier.

Whatever this gun did, Adrian loved it.

The combine fell back under the marine's onslaught, and the soldiers reached at least fifty floors up in the citadel.

The progress was halted when the marines reached a transparent blast door that impeded their progress.

All the marines jumped when a solitary figure revealed himself behind the doorway, a figure dressed in black, an old human assault rifle held in his hands.

The figure tilted his head on its side, as if curious, and then he darted off into the depths of the citadel.

The combine must have used hallucinogenic gas or something. (Not that it would affect Adrian, who wore a gas mask)

Because Adrian was sure that was a black op


	13. Chapter 13

"BLOW THAT DOOR! NOW! WE HAVE TO FOLLOW HIM!" Barnes bellowed at one of the marines, who began tinkering with an explosive device.

The device was taking too long to prepare, so Adrian pushed his way to the front with his squad, and he promptly incinerated the door.

The marines sprinted after the black op, further and further up the citadel they chased him, there were surprisingly few combine patrols around…

The black op stopped near a gunship repair facility, cornered on one of the platforms, he turned to face the marines.

All the marines pointed their weapons at the black op, who seemed fairly calm under the circumstances.

"What are you doing here!?" Barnes roared at the man, Barnes had seen some of the black ops actions at black mesa, he obviously didn't like it.

The black op tilted his head again.

"I am merely a predator, a Wolf stalking the flock…"

The fact that the black op was a nutcase did not reflect well on the situation, but the black op had let one word slip intentionally.

Wolf…

"WOLFE!" a few marines roared, several combine gunship's flooded into the area.

The black op fired a grappling hook onto a platform above and shot upwards to leave the marines with the gunships.

"Coward!" Jackson yelled after the black op

Adrian unloaded his weapon at the gunships, incinerating two.

The marines fired a volley of rifle grenades in the hopes of hitting something.

One gunship plunged into the abyss of the citadel. Grenade blasts leaving it flightless.

Adrian pulled the trigger five more times on the weapon, four gunships down, half a combine repair pad destroyed.

"Retreat!" Barnes yelled

The marines fell back before the gunship's claimed any of their number; they would find another way up.

After half an hour of fighting their way through the now more numerous combine, the marines arrived at what looked like one of the citadels dark energy reactors.

There were pipes leading to the dark energy field, possibly coolant. The chamber itself was fairly small. This citadel was different in that it used multiple reactors instead of one.

The black op stood at the other side of the field. He no longer donned his balaclava.

This man was Prime Minister Wolfe. He grinned, Adrian could see that Wolfe's eyes were bloodshot, and that his skin had not seen light in a long time.

"Welcome to the belly of the beast" Wolfe spoke, raising his hands above his head.

He was obviously demented…

"This is where the final hunt commences! Judgement is upon us!"

The marines raised their rifles

"You're coming with us Wolfe" Barnes pointed at Wolfe

Wolfe ignored Barnes

"Release the agent!"

At a word, yellow liquid poured from the coolant pipes into the dark energy field, several concentrated beams shot from the walls into the field and the energy turned red in colour.

"The hunt begins!" Wolfe screamed and leapt into the field

To Adrian's surprise, Wolfe was not torn apart by the energy, rather, an image formed in it, a familiar image…

Xen!

A horde of race X shock troops sprinted into the room, Adrian turned to see Xar next to him.

"I thought it was marines only"

Xar shook his head

"Your men kindly blew the door open for us at the foundations; it was just a matter of digging a little."

Adrian looked at the image of Xen.

"You think it's a portal or something?"

Xar nodded

"I would think so, I will go through with a contingent of X, and I imagine you will want to come"

Adrian nodded

"Damn straight"

With that, he leapt into the gate.


	14. Chapter 14

The feeling of teleportation was familiar to Adrian, his body itched and his mouth dried slightly. Overall however, this trip was far less painful than the trip that had bought him to Trafalgar square. The itch was not one to scratch, rather it was slightly comforting.

What happened next certainly was not.

The dimension of the teleport darkened, the green glow that had engulfed Adrian now turned pitch black. Wolfe's face flashed in front of Adrian, alien laughter echoed in his skull.

Then that man appeared, the same man who had put Adrian through an unknown time in captivity. The man's ghostly face grinned a he straightened his tie, the image flashed and the man was gone. Adrian's world turned red, his head practically drove knives into itself, and all he saw was a distorted red spiral as he plunged into the infinite abyss of teleportation. Adrian screamed into the night, he didn't expect any response…

Adrian landed with a thud; he opened his eyes and sat up slowly and painfully.

Xen, he had been here during the black mesa incident, he was in a cave of some sort. The other thing he noticed was a small creature with an eye grotesquely oversized in comparison to its body.

He recognized it from black mesa; he knew that it could unleash some sort of shockwave that could easily hurt him. He reached for his weapon, and then he saw it was a few metres to his right.

The little beast approached him, he began to back off and prepared to make a dash to his gun, all the creature did was pounce onto a tiny bug next to him, and it swallowed the tiny insect before leaping over towards another part of the cave.

Probably a docile creature that had been enraged by the resonance cascade, humanity had wreaked havoc on the xen ecosystem.

Adrian strode over to his weapon, picked it up and began to scan the rest of the cave. A few hundred metres away there was a headcrab which posed no threat, after Adrian had incinerated it. There was a small pack of the large eyed creatures drinking from a small pool.

'Let's call them houndeyes' Adrian thought

Other than that, some fleshy xen fauna swayed in an unseen wind, some bat like things clung to the roof of the cave and a small steel door was built into a wall.

"What the hell?" Adrian didn't remember there being human constructs in xen…

He ran over to the door and looked for a mechanism to open it with. A small keypad glowed next to it. he looked at It carefully, and decided not to try typing a code in.

Loud gunfire distracted him; it was the sound of a magnum revolver if Adrian was any judge…

"…FUCK OFF YOU ONE EYED PIECES OF SHIT…!" it was Jackson; he was back-pedalling away from a pack of houndeyes, punching holes in them with the modified magnum.

Adrian sprinted over to Jackson

"Jackson! JACKSON! They're bloody harmless!"

Jackson lowered his aim and allowed the houndeyes to approach; they leapt up and down, blinking rapidly.

"See, the black mesa incident just startled them, that's all"

Jackson nodded

"Have you met up with any marines or X?"

Adrian gestured to the door

"No, but I found something, can you still figure your way past encoded panels?"

Jackson grinned with a mouth full of badly maintained teeth

"You bet your ass"

Adrian and Jackson ran over to the console and began work. First Jackson removed the panel and then he started moving wires and cutting parts with his combat knife.

"There, its open"

The door shot open and the two marines moved in

Somewhere between fifteen and thirty black ops stood there with weapons raised and aimed at the marines.

"Let me handle this Adrian" Jackson whispered

Adrian slapped his face in his mind; god knew what Jackson would do…

"Well hello gentlemen!" Jackson began moving towards them, he put on a sophisticated accent

"I must say, I believe we find ourselves lost, could you kindly direct us to our associates?" Jackson drawled. Adrian saw him prime grenade behind his back.

One of the black ops rammed his rifle in Jackson's face

"You are to come with us to General Wolfe"

"Funny… I had thought you were report to saint peter…"

The black op snarled

"Under who's authority!?"

Jackson grinned

"The little guy under your feet orders you to"

The black ops at the back looked at a tiny package that Jackson had slid into their position

"SHIT! MOVE!"

Jackson leapt backwards and landed on his behind, the grenade dispersed the black ops all over the walls.

Jackson stood up and smiled as small pieces of organs and bone landed around him

Adrian would have smiled as well, if a lung hadn't hit his face.

The two marines began to move into the building.

Forty two years ago:

4th march

Texas:

White plateau development firm:

The room was full of scientists and engineers; one or two US black ops stood guard

"Are you sure the machines are working?"

"Yes! I've checked eighteen times already!"

"Ok, run the test."

One of the men wearing lab coats spoke into a microphone

"Armour test one, five AM, 4th march"

With that, the room fell silent

A view port opened and the men crowded round it. Inside the test chamber, one large artillery cannon was placed facing a large sheet of black metal.

The cannon fired at the sheet and a round exploded against the metal. The metal ruptured on the outside layer, it had a crater shaped mark in it.

The wound on the metal liquefied and flowed back into a perfect flat surface.

The entire research team cheered.

"Today is a good day for the US! General!"

An older man in black nodded

"When can the armour be mass produced, it will only be fielded by black operatives, you understand"

The scientist shrugged

"Four years, twenty until we can put it into a weapons system, but I predict that refinement will take at least thirty years after that"

"So we won't be able to rearm with the armour and weapons for fifty four years?"

The researcher nodded

"Forty if we get motivated enough"

"Fine, this project will have your competitors at aperture science and black mesa worried, they think they're on to something about teleportation, they will not take kindly to another project of this magnitude"

The scientist laughed

"Those fools! Ha! Black mesa, without any proper safety precautions! And aperture science? They are children in a grown up world, they don't have the first idea about teleportation!"

The general shrugged

"Whatever, I will relay this news to command, oh, and black mesa seem to be excited, apparently some skilled bloke called Kliener joined them or something"

"Ha! Recruit all they want, we are still ahead!"

"Farewell Rupert…"


End file.
